A story of COOLFLY user — Barbara Rissmann
(@Mimi's Garden on the COOLFLY App, ID: 27194543)
Barbara still calls herself a birding newbie.
That is true, at least if you count the years. She only became seriously interested in birdwatching recently, and her backyard setup is still growing.
But spend a little time looking through Barbara's posts and videos, and “newbie” only tells part of the story.
She is always trying something new, whether it is adjusting a feeder, adding music to a bird video, or paying closer attention to the visitors in her yard. That curiosity naturally carries into the community too. Barbara enjoys exchanging ideas with other bird lovers, sharing what has worked for her, and passing along useful discoveries when she finds them.
In a surprisingly short time, birding has given her something to watch, something to learn, something to create, and a new way to connect with people.
As Barbara put it herself:
“My story is short, but big!”
She may have found the perfect way to describe it.
The Camera That Started Everything
Barbara grew up in Grandview, a small agricultural town in Central Washington State, surrounded by animals. Horses were her childhood obsession, while birds were more her parents' thing.
Her mother kept parakeets and canaries, and both of her parents especially loved watching California Quail with their large families of chicks.
Barbara never thought of herself as a birdwatcher then. But many years later, quail would become the reason she started paying closer attention.
Last summer, after a neighbor's small dog was injured by a raccoon or another wild animal, they decided to add cameras around their property to see what was happening outside.
Barbara's brother Don, whom she is extremely close with, had a security system he was no longer using and sent it to her. There was one extra outdoor camera.
A quail nest had appeared near Barbara's home for several years, so she decided to point the extra camera at it.
Soon, she was following a pair of quail around the nest. She named them Shirley and Doug, after her mom and dad.
Then, this spring, the camera captured something Barbara had never seen before: Shirley laying an egg.
“The first time I saw Shirley this spring lay an egg in the quail nest, I was in awe,” Barbara said. “That was the first time I began to become passionate.”
Shirley the quail with her egg.
The nest had been there for years, but the camera let her see what she had been missing. Soon, she wanted to know what other birds were visiting her yard.
When Barbara later mentioned to Don that she was thinking about getting a smart bird feeder, he surprised her with a Richbird Revive smart bird feeder powered by the COOLFLY App.
Her reaction says almost everything:
“BEST GIFT EVER!”
“I had no idea I would get totally enamored with birdwatching,” she said. “I was immediately obsessed!!”
Seeing More, Learning More
At first, Barbara simply wanted to see which birds were visiting.
But a camera changes something about that question.
A bird no longer has to arrive at exactly the moment you happen to be looking out the window. A recorded visit can be watched again. You can pause, look more closely, and start noticing details that might have disappeared in a few seconds.
For a new birder like Barbara, that quickly turned watching into learning.
House Finch.
Finches, chickadees, sparrows, and hummingbirds were common visitors around her home. Then she began noticing birds she had never known much about before.
Nuthatches were one example.
“I had no idea what they were previously,” Barbara said. “They are adorable!”
Soon, simply knowing the name of a species was not enough.
Barbara started paying attention to differences between males and females, adults and juveniles, and changes in plumage.
“I'm almost to the step where I'm trying to differentiate between males, females, juveniles and individuals in general,” she said.
The COOLFLY App has become part of that learning process. Bird videos give her something to return to, while bird identification tools help her work out what she is looking at.
Barbara pays close attention when those tools change, too.
When new options appeared that allowed users to try identifying an unidentified video again and correct an identification, Barbara quickly shared the news with the COOLFLY Facebook Group.
She explained the new options so other users could try them too.
It is a small example of how quickly her birding journey has changed.
Not long ago, she was asking, “What bird is that?”
Now, when she learns something useful, she is often excited to help someone else find the answer too.
One of Barbara's posts in the COOLFLY Facebook community.
Two Feeders, Plenty of Experiments
Barbara is still experimenting with her backyard setup, and she is happy to admit it.
“I'm a birding newbie and experimenting with my feeders.”
Right now, she has two main feeding areas: a seed feeder and a hummingbird feeder.
Her seed feeder has already received a few DIY touches, including a small container of water for visiting birds.
“The birds do enjoy the water, but honestly, the squirrels like it better,” Barbara said.
A squirrel stopping by for a drink.
Instead of treating every squirrel as an enemy, Barbara decided to make room for them too.
“I've decided to welcome them and try to keep them fed and hydrated without attracting other animals like raccoons.”
Her hummingbird setup has been another experiment.
Barbara had tried hummingbird feeders over the years, but leaking feeders made the experience frustrating. This year, she first created a small hummingbird garden along the railing of her deck.
Hummingbirds visited from time to time.
Barbara wanted more.
She later added a smart hummingbird feeder and placed it on a pole directly in front of the chair where she likes to sit.
That location gives her the best of both worlds.
When she is outside, she can simply look up and watch a hummingbird visit in real time. When she is not sitting there, the camera can still capture visits for her to enjoy later.
And she is not stopping there.
Another hummingbird feeder is already on the way.
For someone who keeps calling herself a newbie, things seem to be moving quickly.
A New Rhythm, A Familiar Purpose
Before retirement, Barbara spent her career in customer service at a local college and university.
Working in Student Services gave her the chance to support students, help them solve problems, and encourage them as they worked toward their goals.
That part of the job mattered to her.
So retirement left a gap she had not entirely expected.
“When I retired, I lost that sense of the ability to help people,” she said.
Birding has begun filling her days in a different way.
There are feeders to check, hummingbirds to watch for, videos to open, and new birds to learn about. Even winter now feels like a season when the hobby can give her something to stay involved with.
Barbara refilling her bird feeder.
Barbara says birding will help:
“keep me active through the winter and help me structure my days.”
But the birds have also led her back to something very familiar: helping other people.
In the COOLFLY Facebook community, Barbara regularly joins conversations when she has something useful to share.
When one member asked why a feeder camera that had once been clear was beginning to look hazy, Barbara suggested that in a humid area, cleaning the lens might simply need to become part of the regular birding routine.
When another member wondered why the finches at their feeder seemed less colorful, Barbara shared what she had been noticing in Spokane Valley. Some of the birds, she suggested, might be juveniles still going through their molt.
She does not present herself as an expert.
She asks questions too. She listens to what other members have tried. And when somebody else comes up with a useful solution, she is just as happy to learn from them.
That is what she likes about the community.
“My biggest impression was the passion of those following a new path like I was,” Barbara said. “I love helping people learn, and I love learning by seeing other's solutions.”
In many ways, it is a familiar feeling. The questions are different now, but Barbara is still learning, encouraging, and helping others along the way.
The part of her that loved helping people never really retired. It simply found a new place to belong.
Birding Close to Home
Barbara's birdwatching does not usually involve heading out on a trail with binoculars.
Because double vision makes binoculars difficult for her to use, much of her birding happens closer to home.
From her deck. At the feeders. And through her phone.
That makes the feeder especially useful for her. It gives her another way to get a close look at birds, replay visits, and notice details without needing a traditional birding setup.
More importantly, it means birding fits naturally into the life she already has.
Barbara has lived in the same Spokane Valley home for more than forty years. The backyard itself is not new.
What she is noticing there is.
A quail nest she had passed for years suddenly had a story.
A nuthatch became a bird with a name.
A hummingbird that might have appeared for only a few seconds became a visitor she could look forward to seeing again.
And birding has also become something Barbara can share with her granddaughter.
Barbara and her husband spend a lot of time with her during the summer and after school during the school year. They have not gone on traditional birdwatching trips together, but birds have found their way into their time together anyway.
Her granddaughter enjoys the quail and hummingbirds, but chickadees are her favorite.
She also gets excited to watch the daily bird video with Barbara.
There is something fitting about that.
Years ago, Barbara watched her parents enjoy California Quail.
Today, a pair of quail named Shirley and Doug appears on her own camera.
And now her granddaughter is beginning to notice the birds too.
The way they watch has changed.
The joy of noticing them has not.
A hummingbird visiting Barbara's feeder.
My Story Is Short, But Big
When Barbara first shared her story with us, she worried that there might not be much to tell.
“I kind of don't feel worthy and I hope it's not too boring,” she wrote. “I'm such a newbie.”
But being new is exactly what makes her story interesting.
Barbara did not need years of birding experience before the hobby began to matter.
One extra camera showed her something she had never seen.
One smart bird feeder helped her discover more of the birds already visiting her backyard.
The COOLFLY App gave her another way to identify, revisit, and learn from those visits.
And the community gave all of that curiosity somewhere to go.
She could ask questions, share what she learned, make her bird videos more fun, help others when she could, and keep learning along the way.
Her brother sent her a bird feeder. She found much more than a feeder.
She found quail named after her parents, hummingbirds outside her favorite chair, squirrels drinking from a tiny water dish, chickadees that delight her granddaughter, and a group of people who are just as happy as she is to talk about all of it.
Barbara's birding story may still be short.
But she was right.
It is already very big.